Got your breath back yet? Series 2 of Sherlock was a non-stop rollercoaster, ending, as all rollercoasters do, in a massive endorphin rush of a plummet.

As we all ponder just how Sherlock defied the one mistress harsher than Irene Adler – sweet lady Gravity – CultBox have picked out 10 standout moments to look back on…

 

10. “Are you wearing pants?” (A Scandal in Belgravia)

It’s Sherlock Holmes. Sitting in Buckingham Palace. Completely starkers, but for the privacy of a sheet. ‘Nuff said.

 

9. “Well, that was tedious…” (The Hounds of Baskerville)

Splattered with blood and wielding a harpoon, Sherlock nonchalantly strides back into 221B Baker Street. That in itself is a hilarious image, but then the absurd humour of the situation is compounded by discovering that he travelled like that on the Tube, because as he states, “None of the cabs would take me.”

 

8. Moriarty gets a call (A Scandal in Belgravia)

We waited a year and a half to find out how Sherlock could possibly escape the cliffhanger to The Great Game, only to find he’s saved by the Bee Gees.

Well, technically he’s saved by Irene Adler (and in a nice piece of symmetry he returns the favour by saving her with a phone at the end). It wasn’t only a cheeky get-out to an impossible situation, but also an intriguing lead-in to Holmes’ next adventure.

 

7. Molly and Sherlock (A Scandal in Belgravia)

Sherlock’s pathological need to make deductions about everything leads to him revealing Molly’s crush on him.

Loo Brealey’s performance here is wonderful, as she chokes back the hurt to deliver the heartbreaking line: “You say such horrible things.” And as Sherlock, in a sign of his burgeoning humanity, apologises and kisses her, the tension’s broken with a great piece of comic timing.

 

6. Moriarty’s crowning glory (The Reichenbach Fall)

To the strains of Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie, Moriarty commits one of the greatest crimes of the century… just to attract Sherlock’s attention.

It’s crafty, grand in scale, and has the typically camp conclusion we’ve come to expect from Andrew Scott’s criminal mastermind as he sits, resplendent, in the Queen’s finest hat.

 

5. The Mind Palace (The Hounds of Baskerville)

A popular hashtag on Twitter after the episode aired, Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ was one of the best visual demonstrations as to how the Great Detective’s mind works.

Beautifully choreographed and acted, right down to the little Elvis gesture Cumberbatch does as he thinks of ‘The King’, it’s a seamless blend of effects and performance.

 

4. Adler’s naked truth (A Scandal in Belgravia)

Sherlock can read your life in the stitching of your clothes, so what happens when you’re not wearing a stitch?

Irene Adler’s naked entrance is a stunning bit of visual irony: baring all in order to hide everything. Part camouflage to evade being read, part attempt to throw Sherlock off his game, it doesn’t just show us how confident she is but also how clever.

 

3. The Fall (The Reichenbach Fall)

Sherlock and Moriarty meet on the rooftop, and you know it’s not going to end well. And then it ends really not well.

Moriarty performs brain surgery on himself with a gun, Sherlock makes a heartbreaking phone-call to John and then: the fall itself.

It’s shocking, heartbreaking, and as you see Watson being knocked over by a Solitary Cyclist (did you spot that, Holmes fans?), you’ve the inescapable feeling that you’re seeing a carefully staged magic trick.

 

2. “I don’t have friends!” (The Hounds of Baskerville)

Sherlock’s seen the Hound, he can’t trust his senses, and it’s got him rattled. Really rattled. The result is the character as we’ve never seen him before: emotional.

As he clutches his scotch in a quivering hand and spits out bursts of logic, it’s as unsettling for the audience as it is for Watson. This is a true stand-out moment in Cumberbatch’s already excellent take on the Great Detective.

 

1. Watson at the grave (The Reichenbach Fall)

You would have to have a heart like Sherlock himself not to be moved by this. Martin Freeman puts in the performance of the series as the bereaved soldier mourning not just a comrade, not just a friend, but “the most human human” he ever knew.

And just as we too get teary eyed, the camera pans round and… we realise just how excruciating the wait until Series 3 is going to be.

 

What was your favourite moment in Series 2? Let us know below…